Second defeat of season for league leaders

DIRECTOR OF RUGBY PHILOSOPHICAL AFTER BRACKNELL COMEBACK

CAMBERLEY director of rugby Michael Clarke wants his side to ‘capitalise’ on their momentum at the start of games after seeing his Regional One South Central tabletoppers suffer their second defeat of the season at Bracknell on Saturday.

As the first half of the campaign drew to a close at the weekend, Camberley opened up a 14-0 lead in Berkshire with their opponents also losing a player to the sin-bin in the opening 12 minutes.

However, Bracknell fought back and took a 19-14 lead into the break, and while the visitors did manage to regain the lead in the second period, the Stags hit back to go 33-26 up before they defended their line with their lives to claim the win.

“I think when you’re at the top of the league, every team you face is going to be a cup final,” Clarke said.

“I think that there is some added spice to this game with some of the relationships with some of the Bracknell players from previously. It was always going to be a big game.

“All credit goes to Bracknell. I thought they were fantastic. They showed a huge amount of heart at the end. It was a really good game of rugby and it was a flip of a coin of which way it was going to go at the end.

“[We did] exactly what we hoped to do, start well, we just really struggled to get out of our own half at the end of that first half.

“We found it really difficult to get out of our third and Bracknell capitalised, they did really well.”

Despite the loss, Camberley go into Christmas six points clear at the top of the table, although second placed Havant do have two games in hand over the leaders.

But, having taken over at the helm this season from Gareth Davies, Clarke is pleased with how it has been going so far. “We are still at the top of the league, we are moving in the right direction, this is our second loss,” the director of rugby said.

“Sport is not a perfect science, there are always going to be wins and losses. On the whole we are doing great.

“I think the culture is very different this year. The boys are all at the club for the right reasons. We have all bought in to what we are trying to achieve, I think there is a big cultural shift.

“We have some new players. We have got a couple of new coaches which have had a real big impact on the culture in the group.

“Ultimately, [we have to] keep winning rugby games. If you look at our last four games, they have all been relatively close.

“So we have got to put some distance between us and other teams at the start of games, capitalise on the momentum. As long as we do that we will be fine.”

Camberley return to action on Saturday, January 6, when they host Marlborough at the Watchetts, kickoff 2pm.